Thread-cabinet



(No ModeL) W. P. STREIGJH.

THREAD CABINET.

No. 344,?92. Patented June 29, 1886.

TTED STaTns PATENT Triep.

YVILLIAM F. STREICI-I, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

THREAD-CABINET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No., 344,792, dated lune29, 1885,

Application filed July li, 1885. Serial No. 170,674.

To all whom it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM F. Sfrnnrou, of Chicago, inthe county of(look and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Thread-Cabinets; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, referencebeing had tothe accompanying drawings, and to the letters of referencemarked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to an improved ease or cabinet for holdingspool-thread; and it consists in the matters hereinafter described, andpointed out in the appended claims.

The device herein shown as embodying my invention comprises a casecontaining aseries of inclined spool-passages constructed to receive thespools at their upper ends, and provided with means at their lower endswhereby ne or more spools may be readily removed vithout allowing theescape of other spools ontained in the passages, as will hereinafterfully appear.

The invention may be more fully understood by reference to theaccompanying drawings, in whieh- Figure l is a perspective view of twosimilar cases, the upper one of which is shown in section to illustratethe interior construction thereof. Fig. 2 is a central vertical sectiontaken longitudinally through the lower end of a spool-passage anddischarging devices therefor, together with a drawer similar to thatshown at the bottom of the lowercase in Fig. l. Fig. 3 is a sectiontaken transversely through the lower ends of the passages upon line x a"of Fig. 2. Fig. it is asectional View illustrating a slide or drawerprovided with a recess adapted to receive several spools.

As illustrated in the perspective view, Fig. l, two eases or cabinets, Aand A', are shown, both containing a series of tubular inclinedreceptacles or passages adapted to receive thread 0I" different sizes ornumbers, and one of which may be usedfor white and the other for blackthread. The eases shown are similar to those which will be ordinarilyemployed in stores, and the lower one is shown as conveniently providedat its bottom with a drawer, A2, for colored thread,'the drawer beingdivided by suitable partitions into compart- (No model.)

`ments adapt-ed to contain a number of spools `of different colors, butof the same size.

B B are the spool receptacles or passages, herein shown as extendingbackwardly and forwardly between the front and rear vertical walls ofthe cabinet, in order to obtain sufficient length therein, and inclinedsufciently to cause a line of spools to move freely through them, thesaid passages being connected at their upper ends with suitable openingsin the walls ofthe cabinet,through which the spools may be introduced,and provided with exit-openings at their lower ends, closed `by suitabledevices to prevent the escape of the spools, except as wanted.

In the cabinet shown the passages B are formed by means of upper andlower parallel walls or partitions, B, of thin wood or metal, which aresecured to the front and rear walls of the cabinet in any suitablemanner, the spaces between the said walls or partitions B being dividedby vertical partitions B2, so as to form passages of suitable size forthe spools. The said passages may all be made of the same width; but asherein shown they vary in width to correspond with the lengths of thespools, this construction being desirably used in order to lessen thesize or bulk of the cabinet.

In connection with a cabinet or thread-case containing an inclinedpassage or passages such as is above described, means for removing thelowermost spool of the line of spools in each passage without allowingthe escape of all of the spools in the passage are herein provided, asfollows: As shown in the upper part of Fig. 1, and in Figs. 2 and 3,slides or drawers C C, one for each passage, are located at the lowerends of said passages, said draw ers being arranged to extend beneaththe forward portions of the lower walls, B, of the passages, andprovided with recesses or notches C in their forward or outer ends,arranged to come beneath openings b in the'said lower walls of thepassages at the lower ends of the latter when the drawers are closed.Said openings Z are made of the proper size to allow the passage of asingle spool, and the recesses C' iu the drawers are made equal in depthto the diameter of aspool, so that when the end spool ot' the line ofspools enters the said recess through the opening the next spool IOOtion shownin Fig. 1,the spool contained in the 'recess thereof isremoved,and upon thereturn of the drawer to its usual position the spoolresting against the surface c thereof will drop into the recess, and maybe removed in a similar manner when desired.

'The drawer C may be provided with a vrecess, c', at the rear of thespool, into which the finger may be introduced to more convenientlyremove the spools from the draw-ers.

The portions of the drawer at either side of the said recess c' are ofcourse continued forward to the recess C', so as to engage theendotherwise, provided said drawers contain re-` cesses to receive theend spools, and a surface to sustain the remaining spools while thedrawer is pulled out for the removal ofthe Spool within it. I

In a cabinet intended to contain a series of spools of different sizes,and in which the drawers C are of the same vertical depth, as shown, therecesses C will be made shallower for the smaller spools than for thelarger ones, as clearly shown in Fig. 3, so as to bring the tops of thespools within the several recesses level` with the top surfaces of thedrawers. The drawer C and cabinet are desir-ably provided with stops ciand c, Figs. 2 and 9, to limit the outward movement of said drawers.

Instead of using a series of drawers, C, a

single slide or drawer extending beneath and adapted to receive spoolsfrom a number of spool K- passages may be employed. Thisconstruction isillustrated in connection with the lower case, shown in Fig. 1, in whichasingle drawer or slide, G2, is shown as extending along the entirefront of the cabinet, the said drawer C2 being provided with recesses Cto receive the spools, and a rear horizontal surface, c, to prevent theescape of the spools when thc slide is drawn out, in the same manner asdescribedin connection with the drawers C. The spoolholding recesses Cbeing in this case closed at their ends, the recesses c are obviouslydesirable to enable the spools to be readily removed.

The use of the single slide C2 may be found advantageous as affording amore simple construction in the parts and enabling the several sizes ofspools to be inspected at once when the drawer is opened. rIhe spools inthe passages will obviously be prevented from moving downwardly by thepresence ofthe spools in the recesses when the drawer is moved in andout, except in the case of a recess from which a spool has been removed,when the next spool will be fed down in readiness to be removed when thedrawer is again opened in the same manner as before set forth.

It will obviously often be desirable to remove more than one spool atone time from one of the passages of the cabinet, and in order to avoidthe necessity of moving the drawer several times under suchcircumstances the recess obviously be applied either to the drawers C.

shown in Figs. 2 and 3 or to the single drawer C2 at the lower part yofFig. 1. In either case the sectional view of the drawer will besubstantially as shown in Fig. 4, in which the recess C is shown as madeof a width to receive three spools side by side. The opening b in thepassage B above the slide will in this case be of proper size to permitthe discharge of one spool at a time, and the three spools to fill therecess Cwill obviously drop into place into the said recess as thedrawer is thrust back after being emptied in the same manner as in thecase of recess adapted to contain a single spool. When the recess C ismade of sufficient width to receive several spools, as shown in the saidFig. 4, the bottom of said recess will preferably be inclined in adirection downward away from the opening Z by which the spools enter therecess, this construction being used to facilitate the movement ofaspool beneath said opening away from the latter, to permit the downwardmovement of other spools in the passage.

The passa-ges B, at their upper ends, may be arranged in any suitableway for the convenient insertion of the spools therein. As hereinillustrated, said passages terminate at the upper margin of the frontwall of the cabinet, and are closed by a flap-door, E, forming a part ofthe ornamental front of the cabinet.

I claim as my invention- 1. A thread-cabinet provided with verticalfront and rear walls, and with a number of parallel inclinedspool-passages arranged side byside, each extending back and forth invertical planes to and between the said verticalv front and rear wallsof the cabinet from the top to the bottom ofthe latter, and with a slideor drawer receiving the spools from said passages, substantially asdescribed.

2. The combination, with the threadcabinet provided with one or moreinclined spoolpassages terminating near the front wall of the cabinet,of a slide or drawer, as C, provided with a recess in its forward orouter part to receive a spool or spools from one or IIO IZO

more of said passages, and formed with a rear top surface constructed toarrest the downward movement of the spools Within the passage orpassages when the slide is drawn out, substantially as described.

3. The combination, with a spoolpassage, of a slide or drawer providedwith a recess, C, to receive aspool, and having a horizontal part orsurface constructed to arrest the downward movement of the spools whenthe slide is drawn out, and a recess, c', adjacent to the recess C',substantially as described.

4. The combination, with a threadeabinet provided with a series ofspool-passages of different widths, of a single slide or drawer withinthe several passages when the slide is drawn out, substantially asdescribed.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I affix mysignature in presence vof' two witnesses.

WILLIAM F. STREICH. AWitnesses: s

C. CLARENCE PooLn, S. ARTHUR WAHM-1ER.

